The list grows. Some people who've been around for a while under the new order of multiple Bonded want all their dead Bondmates back, whereas some only want one or two because they're worried about collisions.

"We're testing this," says Saravasse firmly. "Atuona, go ask the nice man for your first five Bondmates."

Atuona goes to Milan and names five individuals.

"Sure," says Milan. He turns up and concentrates. Two elves and three humans appear, confused.

"Well, none of you are dropping dead again immediately, that's a good sign," says Saravasse.

"Saravasse," grumbles Atuona. She retrieves her resurrected Bondmates to explain what's going on and check that they're all definitely okay. It comes out that not all of them are currently her Bondmates. Apparently only one example of each type of magic may be Bonded to a particular dragon at a time, and priority goes to whoever happens to be resurrected first.

Some dragons start frantically prioritizing. Others decide they don't need their entire list of dead Bondmates; some decide that actually maybe they could use a few more if this is how it's going to work out. The overworked secretary has to scrap his whole list and start over.